Slightly mad

[purpletigron]

Apparently, to install a suitable wood-burning stove in a smoke control area costs upward of 2K.

The stove the previous owners balanced in our fireplace isn't suitable.

Wah.

Comments

[sci.livejournal.com]

My dad replaced his gas fires with wood burners. They were pricey, but used right their smoke-free, adjustable and self-cleaning.
I'll try to ask him about them!

EDIT:
Got it. They're "expensive" by my dads standards, so probably over the 2k level again. He went for the Riva 66 Multi-Fuel Fire, by Stovax (Exeter-based).
http://www.stovax.com/products.htm?cid=2&sid=2&pid=50

I'll vouch that it radiates like crazy, even with just one log slow-burning.

[coth.livejournal.com]

I'm looking for an acceptable solution for our living-room grate to provide a flexible supplement for our efficient combination boiler. Ideally I'd like the solution to give us an 'off grid' heating option for when gas and/or electricity supplies fail. We currently have a gas point for a coal-effect gas fire - an inefficient carbon no-no. A wood-burning stove is technically feasible, but fiendishly expensive and very hard to manage for a few hours use at a time - they're intended to provide the main source of heat for a room or even a house. And if everyone installed one in our densely-packed suburb the air quality would go even more to pot than it is already.

An efficient electric heater - which could in theory be powered from off-grid sources - looks like the best answer in theory, but is again fiendishly expensive.

Looks like another of those 'can't solve this one on my own' issues to me.

Answers on a postcard please.

[drpete.livejournal.com]

For your electric heater, I really like the idea of a Sterling engine - you would put one on the flue of your gas boiler, and it would power a generator from the waste heat remaining in the flue gas. British Gas were working on a prototype combi unit of boiler/genny, but (allegedly) were having problems (a) keeping the cost down, and (b) convincing the electricity suppliers it was a good idea...
I have an open fire (not a stove) and it absolutely devours wood. This season (since Nov) I've had a fire 3 or 4 nights a week and have got through most of a 50 foot pine tree from the garden, and have spent a lot of time foraging for other logs nearby. If I'd bought the wood I've burnt from local or online log suppliers, I would have spent getting on for £200.